Dow's sale of 430 acres falls through

By DANNY ADLERStaff writer

Monday

Mar 25, 2013 at 12:01 AMMar 25, 2013 at 5:55 AM

Five months after a deal was announced to sell roughly 430 acres of riverfront property in Bristol Township’s Maple Beach area along the Delaware River, Dow Chemical said the deal is no longer on the table.

Late last week, Dow spokesman Justin M. Land told the newspaper in an email that private equity firm Ecosystem Investment Partners terminated the agreement of sale that it had with Dow for the Maple Beach property. The property comprised 430 of Dow’s 800-plus acres at the foot of the Burlington-Bristol Bridge.

Some Bristol Township officials and residents worry that by creating wetlands for the mitigation bank, land that could be developed in Bristol Township is taken off the table — along with the tax ratables connected with such potential development.

The land is made up of a former industrial land, wooded wetlands, large bodies of water and former residential areas that were abandoned or bought out years ago. A handful of people still live in a few homes there.

“We were unable to secure the township approvals necessary to bring this project to a successful conclusion,” Land said. “As a result of this impasse, we have received notification from Ecosystem Investment Partners that they have elected to exercise their right to terminate the agreement of sale on the Maple Beach property.”

“Our vision for Maple Beach has always been a balanced approach, combining economic development and land conservation,” he said. “For over 10 years we have been actively engaged in marketing the Maple Beach property at the Bristol Site to achieve this vision. EIP’s alignment with this vision, desire to work with the community, experience and financial capacity to realize it, and intent to purchase the property resulted in the best option since the property was put up for sale.”

Township officials have criticized the agreement of sale, saying that the municipality was never given specific details about what Dow and the firm had in mind for a large-sized property that Bristol Township Manager Bill McCauley has called “our last chance to get a big addition to the tax base.”

Township officials have said they would like a mix of commercial development and public access along the Delaware River at Maple Beach.

Ecosystem Investment Partners told the paper in the fall that the firm sought a balanced mix of traditional commercial development, open space conservation and public recreational use.

Ecosystem Investment Partners describes itself on its website as a private equity firm established in 2006 that “acquires, entitles, restores, and manages properties across the U.S. that generate wetland, stream, and endangered species mitigation credits.”

Ecosystem Investment Partners’ business includes creating wetland mitigation banks. That is when a wetland, stream or other habitat area is restored, created, enhanced or preserved to make up for unavoidable resource losses elsewhere.

Township officials said the firm intended to create wetlands at Maple Beach, bank the land and sell credits to developers who impact wetlands elsewhere, such as the massive expansion to Philadelphia International Airport.

When asked about the impasse this weekend, Bristol Township Councilman Craig Bowen said: “No details. That was the roadblock.”

He also said he failed to see how Bristol Township would benefit from an equity firm selling credits to the airport or major developments outside the township.

“Bristol Township once again gets dumped on,” Bowen said.

Councilman Troy Brennan agreed: “Everybody else was going to make out except the township.”

Numerous times over the last year, Bristol Township officials mentioned how the recent sale of 30-plus-acre Jack’s Marina in the Croydon section of Bristol Township to the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority for $1.26 million. The marina was once slated as a site for 183 new townhouses; now it will be a preservation site for wetlands and coastal wildlife. According to Bucks County property records online, Newport Landing, LP, sold the property to the Philadelphia Regional Port Authority in December 2011.

The port authority secured the Bristol Township site for preservation so it could impact a portion of the Delaware River coastline downriver to complete the Southport Marine Terminal at the former Philadelphia Navy Yard in South Philadelphia.

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